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A Choice Last night, I watched yet another great episode of Scientific American Frontiers, with Alan Alda (check pbs.org for more info).
They were basically doing experimentation on the brain, and how/why it makes the decisions it makes... Anyway, the first of the scenarios presented, (some have probably already heard of this - was a first for me) was: If you are in control of a train (I am explaining it as I saw it, sorta, lol), that it go left or right let's say, and the right side has a family of five on the tracks - the left a single man on the tracks...which path would you choose?
The second: If you were on a bridge that passed OVER the train, and you are standing next to a man...a train is about to run over a family of five walking on the tracks...the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge, and that would stop the train before it got to the family...what would you do?
I am intrested in hearing your viewpoints, as there are many here who would give good debate for either choice.  | |
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Tricky Choices, but If I were left to the option for the first one me would just have to run over the man.
The second choice would have to push the man over the bridge over the saving the family. I really don't want to kill anybody, but if me was stuck in the postion killing one person me would have to do that rather than killing a family. [This message was edited Fri Oct 18 13:33:12 PDT 2002 by kondwanii] |
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What if it was a family of serial killers and the man was really Mother Theresa in drag...what then? | |
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LaVisHh said: If you are in control of a train (I am explaining it as I saw it, sorta, lol), that it go left or right let's say, and the right side has a family of five on the tracks - the left a single man on the tracks...which path would you choose? If life were really composed of such choices, we'd be living in hell. I suppose I'd have to steer left since it's just a question of quantity.
The second: If you were on a bridge that passed OVER the train, and you are standing next to a man...a train is about to run over a family of five walking on the tracks...the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge, and that would stop the train before it got to the family...what would you do? I would not push the man over. How the family got there is a bad circumstance, but you don't start executing one person for another--that's the beginning of the end of humanity!!!
Kudos to you for posing thought-provoking questions!  Fear is the mind-killer. | |
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Thankyou Lavish. I think that common sense says to save the family each time, but I would never want to be in this predicament.  | |
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If you are in control of a train (I am explaining it as I saw it, sorta, lol), that it go left or right let's say, and the right side has a family of five on the tracks - the left a single man on the tracks...which path would you choose?
Neither...I'd slam on the brakes or derail the train...afterall, there wasn't any mention of anyone else being on the train besides me...lol...so I'd take the chance on killing myself before choosing to kill anyone else. If you were on a bridge that passed OVER the train, and you are standing next to a man...a train is about to run over a family of five walking on the tracks...the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge, and that would stop the train before it got to the family...what would you do?
I'd either turn my head away and pray for their souls knowing the inevitable's about to happen..  ...or I'd toss myself over the side to try and stop the train...my assumption is that it's the existence of another person on the tracks being hit by the train which slows it down, not who the person is that gets killed... | |
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wellbeyond... that is rather noble! I should have mentioned that the train had no brakes...but, I too would not be able to live with myself had I, had any direct hand in the death of anyone... | |
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LaVisHh said: the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge
I just find this funny! How on earth...? lol I mean, like, where is the sun? | |
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Natsume said: LaVisHh said: the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge
I just find this funny! How on earth...? lol I guess this was too hard to fully describe in a matter of words... the man was VERY obese... and would have stopped the train. Also...the man with the right/left control - that's the ONLY choice...there was no other...these are distinct choices... just in case anyone thinks they are riddles. But I love the responses!
 [This message was edited Fri Oct 18 15:45:31 PDT 2002 by LaVisHh] | |
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Ummm, wellbeyond took my choices! lol I actually would run the train off the tracks in the first choice, and in the second choice I would jump instead of pushing the man. It doesn't state that it has to be the man or the family in either case, just that those are two of the options. There are always more if one but looks. | |
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is the man good looking?
does the family of 5 have a dog? | |
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Heavenly said: is the man good looking?
does the family of 5 have a dog? Well...they were all figurines placed strategically on a toy train track.  | |
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LaVisHh said: If you are in control of a train (I am explaining it as I saw it, sorta, lol), that it go left or right let's say, and the right side has a family of five on the tracks - the left a single man on the tracks...which path would you choose?
Family of five, I suppose The second: If you were on a bridge that passed OVER the train, and you are standing next to a man...a train is about to run over a family of five walking on the tracks...the ONLY way to stop the train is to push the man over the bridge, and that would stop the train before it got to the family...what would you do?
If that was my only choice, I'd push the man _______________________________
 Miss Cute
For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry. | |
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All of 'em deserve to die for being stupid enough to walk on the goddamn train tracks!  [This message was edited Sun Feb 2 13:11:42 PST 2003 by AnotherLover2] | |
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AnotherLover2 said: All of 'em deserve to die for being stupid enough to walk on the goddamn train tracks!
You're right. We should just run over all of them  _______________________________
Miss Cute
For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry. | |
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I wish I knew how to operate a train in the first place.  | |
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